Mind Games
by SawManiac211
Summary: The Doctor and Co. are brought to the 21st Century where the Jigsaw murders are still taking place. But why do the corpses have no shadows? And how can the Void be opening again? There is another survivor of the Time War...Brief HoffmanXAmy please R
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

_She's won her game._

_She's in pain and limping badly, blood leaving an un-missable trail behind her, but she's alive and won her game._

_So why is she running?_

_And why is she being pursued?_

_Her pursuers are right behind her; she is almost sure of it. She suddenly fakes a left and plunges right, slamming the door behind her and pushing the bolt across. Panting, she listens hard._

_Nothing._

_It's safe._

_She breathes a sigh of deep relief; she will not die today._

_And then, inexplicably, _it_ flickers behind her._

_It builds itself up piece by piece like a fuzzy TV screen, until it is whole, clear, defined._

_Deadly._

_A hiss makes her turn round, slowly, oh-so-slowly._

_She screams._

_The last she sees is a mouthful of razor sharp teeth and red eyes._

_The eyes of the puppet as it said 'Game Over'._

**Chapter 1**

"Amy..._Amy_...AMY!"

"Look, calm down Rory, she's waking up!"

"It's ok for you Doctor, you can regenerate if you get badly hurt, but she's human!"

"Look, she's as tough as a Dalek's casing, she'll be fine."

Amy slowly opened her eyes. Her head was throbbing and she winced – she must've hit it on the TARDIS control panel when she fell. Speaking of which...

"Doctor?" She groaned.

The familiar grin solidified above her head, hair messy, and bow tie lopsided. "Hello, you alright?"

"Doctor, what happened?" She tried to stand, but failed. The Doctor caught her.

"Careful! Some kind of homing system, hit us around the 25th Century and brought us here. Like a harpoon." He looked round and winced. "Hit us pretty hard, too...I don't think my insurance covers this..."

Amy looked round. The TARDIS had seen better days; steam – or was it smoke? – hissed from the consol, and the walls no longer gave off that cheerful golden glow. The only light came from the alien green glow of the central column. And above her head there was a burn mark –

Amy sat up sharply and felt the back of her head. "DOCTOR!" She shrieked.

"I told you she'd get annoyed!" Rory told him.

The Doctor looked sheepish. "Amy, don't get annoyed..."

"Doctor," Amy glared at him. "What. Have. You. Done. To. My. Hair."

The Doctor's grin shrank slightly. "Well, the back of it caught on fire, so..."

"He cut it." Rory finished.

"MIRROR!" Amy screamed. Rory grabbed her compact from her purse and she snatched it. Sure enough, the whole of the back of her long ginger hair was gone. One side was completely normal, the other had been cut long at the front and short at the back in a messy diagonal line. "DOCTOR!" Clearly nine-hundred-and-something-year-old aliens are not to be trusted with scissors.

The Doctor ducked as Amy threw the mirror at his head; it smashed against the wall. "Look, Amy, you need to stay very, very calm..."

"Calm?" Amy's voice rose in pitch and both men held their ears. "_Calm?_ I look like a punk-rocker gone wrong!"

"Amy," The Doctor forced her to look at him. "Once we've found out exactly where we are and why we're here, I'll take you to Belladora: it's basically a planet of pampering products from all round the galaxy, you know, spas, shops and the like. and they do great hairdressers. I'll even pay for it!"

"Sounds like a girly planet to me." Rory grumbled.

"Oh, it is," The Doctor nodded, making his way to the doors. "But I do enjoy popping into the Pandora spa every now and then; they do great organic mud masks, does wonders for the complexion..."

As the Doctor left the TARDIS, Amy turned to Rory. "How bad does it look?" She asked anxiously?

Rory smiled. "Oh, it's not too bad." He said. "Actually, it makes you look quite good, brings out your eyes."

"Ginger doesn't bring out anything," Amy smiled wryly despite herself. "And you're only saying that because you're my fiancée."

"So?" Rory gave her a hug. "You could be a skinhead and I'd still love you!"

Amy hugged him back. "Don't tempt me." She joked.

"Umm," The two of them wheeled round to see that the Doctor had opened the door a few inches. "Sorry to interrupt, but it seems we have a problem."

A man's voice rang out over a loudspeaker. "_This is the FBI. Do not attempt to run, you are surrounded. Please drop your weapons and come out with your hands up._"

Rory turned slightly pale. "What the hell is the _FBI_ doing here?"

Amy shrugged, making for the door. "Terrorism against a simple trim?"

Somewhere in the FBI base, Erickson looked tiredly at the CCTV monitors.

"What I don't understand," He glared at the dark haired man next to him. "Is how a blue box can suddenly materialise right in the basement under your security's noses."

"Sorry sir," The man mumbled. "But...I swear it's true!"

Erickson sighed and looked back at the screen. A man and a woman had joined the first man on the screen. He frowned: the first man looked...familiar...

A young woman crashed into the room. "Sir!" She thrust a thick file in his direction. "We've identified the man in the bow tie...you're not going to believe this..."

Erickson flicked through it. His eyes widened and he glanced from the monitors to the file and to the man and woman. "B...but..." He spluttered. "Perez, this is...impossible, to say the least!"

"I know, sir." Perez nodded grimly. "But there he is."

"But...the Doctor..._died_, didn't he? I mean, I thought the TARDIS had blown up and – "

"Apparently not, sir." Perez nodded to the screen. "But you may want to see him yourself."

"Yes..." Erickson nodded thoughtfully, before turning to the man. "Strahm, I want you to call Hoffman down here."

"But sir –"

"I don't care what you think of the man, I just need him down here. And tell security to bring him up here." Perez nodded and walked from the room, reaching for her radio. "We may have found the beginning of the end for the Jigsaw murders..."

**Does it sound alright so far? Chapter 2 coming up as soon as possible!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Any chance of a cup of tea?" The Doctor flinched away from the armed agent who turned to glare at him. "Oh come on, I know you Americans love your coffee and all that, but it'll affect my immune system...Samanda plants from the planet Anx, I wanted to dispose of them safely but some goats ate some of them, made them hyper. Of course some typically human shepherd decides to eat some – almost died. Luckily I was there, but he couldn't stop jumping around for days."

"Ethiopia, 800AD?" A severe-looking man with a moustache and a name tag reading 'Erickson' entered the room, a scowling man and a nervous looking woman following behind.

"Yep, that's right, ten out of ten, you certainly know your history," The Doctor bounded forward, ignoring the disapproving look from his guard. "Shame I don't really know you. I'm the Doctor, this is Rory and Amy.

"No comments on the hair!" Amy glared at the woman, who looked away, embarrassed.

"Oh, I know who you are," Erickson smiled thinly as he shook the Doctor's hand. "Dan Erickson, FBI agent in charge of...well, we'll discuss that in more private quarters."

"Ooo, I do love it when someone official says we need to discuss something in 'private quarters'," The Doctor rubbed his hands together. "Shall we go?"

"Oh, before we do," Erickson nodded to the two people behind him. "These are Special Agents Strahm and Perez; they help out on the case we're working on. You'll meet the third shortly...when he turns up."

"Ooo," Amy whispered to Rory, watching Strahm's already dark face darken at the mention of the 'third member'. "Someone's got a grudge...I wonder why."

"Well, we can't waste all day here," The Doctor walked out the door. "I'm guessing it wasn't you who sent that homing signal, way too advanced for your time...something wants me here, and wants me here badly..."

"Oi!" Amy called after him. "What about us?"

"Sorry," Perez said shortly. "We have no records of you. As we cannot be sure that you're not a potential risk to security, I'm afraid you'll have to stay down here a bit longer."

"Hey, we travel with _him_," Rory jerked his thumb at the Doctor, who looked a little uncomfortable. "Doesn't that kinda make us the good guys?"

"Well, when you're travelling with one of the most potential security risks there is, I'm afraid you've got to expect this kind of thing." Erickson glared coldly at the Doctor, who shuffled his feet and whistled innocently. "Well, come along then. As you said, we don't have all day."

"_What did you do?_" Amy hissed as they left.

"Oh it's a long story," The Doctor looked sideways at Erickson. "Alien attacks, big explosions, the Bush shoe incident...they've got a pretty big file on me."

"Hang on..." Rory looked at him. "What've _you_ got to do with the Bush shoe incident?"

"Alien tourist, stole my shoe, thought it was a custom..." The Doctor walked casually out the room. "Stay out of trouble, Pond! Or should it be _Ponds_, plural...?"

"Great..." Amy muttered, before turning back to a grim-faced guard. "Is the cup of tea going to be long?"

xXx

"Seriously, there was a point to that coffee talk," The Doctor said mildly. "The Axians wanted to brainwash you; diluting it helps, but drink too much and it isn't going to be pretty...trust me, I've seen it."

"Doctor, this is serious." Erickson snapped. They had moved into Erickson's office and Perez had put her half-drunk cup of coffee in the bin. "We don't have time for this."

"Oh we have all the time in the world for this," The Doctor sat down on the swivel chair behind Erickson's desk and began spinning it in circles so fast it made the three others dizzy. "Time, time, big wobbly timey wimey stuff that goes on forever, a zillion million different points to explore...so how can a homing signal know exactly where to go and get it bang on first time?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Erickson shook his head, confused.

The Doctor screeched to a halt and leapt up, started pacing. "Erickson, that homing signal brought me here for a reason. I don't know why it targeted me, or how, but I do know is that it's most likely very very important because otherwise it wouldn't have got me..." The Doctor halted abruptly and turned on his heel to look at Strahm. "And this must be important too, because usually you humans hate having me anywhere around your little state secrets, so tell me: what's going on?"

Strahm cleared his throat.

"You've heard about John Kramer, haven't you?"

xXx

"God, what's taking them so long?" Amy grumbled. "And _stop staring at my hair!_" She yelled at the guard, who quickly tried to look busy with his gun.

"Amy, you need to calm down." Rory murmured to her.

"Why?" Amy asked stubbornly.

"Well, for one thing they have _guns_..."

"Rory, I don't give a damn." She started singing at the top of her lungs. "WHY ARE WE WAITING, WE ARE SUFFOCATING – "

"Is there a problem?" A man none of them had noticed before stepped into the basement. His icy blue eyes flickered over Amy and his full lips pulled up into a smirk at her hair.

Amy was momentarily wrong footed. "Uh...yes?"

"That's a shame, but turn down the volume a bit, please...preferably to 'mute'. Nice hair, by the way." The man turned to the guard. "How late am I?"

"Very." The guard replied curtly.

"Crap," The man groaned, running his hands absently through his dark hair: Amy thought oddly of the Doctor. "How annoyed did Erickson seem?"

"Very."

"_Crap_."

"Oi, you!" The man turned round as Amy stormed up to him. "Yeah, you. Have you got a problem with my hair?"

"Oh, no, 'course not," The man said, face blank. "Very...interesting, love the layering."

"This," Amy hissed, pointing at her head. "Isn't. Funny."

"I'm not laughing."

"Oh, you _are_."

"I'm _not_!"

"You _are_!"

"You are a very immature, whiney young woman."

"At least I can turn up to a hair appointment – or an important meeting – _on time_, so back off or – or I'll set Rory on you!"

"What?" Rory shook his head frantically, sizing the other man up. "No, nonono, I'm good thanks. You go...gettim..."

The man burst out laughing at Amy's expression. "Don't give her ideas..." He held out a hand. "Mark Hoffman, detective on the Jigsaw case. Like you said, I'm meant to be in a meeting right now, but –"

"Don't tell me, the traffic excuse or the dog ate my car?" Amy smiled back, taking the hand and shaking it. "Amy Pond, the Doctor's assistant, and this pathetic excuse of a husband," She pointed at Rory. "Is Rory Pond."

"Ahh, you're married." The smirk was back. "Thought so."

"And what gave you that impression?" Amy asked defensively.

Hoffman pointed. "The ring?"

"Oh," Amy grinned sheepishly. "Right."

"You need to stop biting everyone's head off, it's very alienating; puts people off you."

"Something wrong with it?"

"Personally I like women with spirit, but I'm not sure about your husband here." He winked at Rory. "This one's a keeper; bit more fiery than some though, no puns intended about the hair...well, not exactly..."

Amy thumped him in the chest. "Hey, what did I tell you about the hair?"

"Sorry, short term memory loss."

"Firstly: total utter crap, and you know it! Secondly: what do you mean you like 'women with spirit'?"

Hoffman leaned in, grinning wolfishly. "You never did anything on the night of your wedding, did you?"

Amy narrowed her eyes at him, hands on hips. "What are you saying?"

"Oh, every woman's allowed a little fling just before or after they get married." He leaned in closer and whispered in her ear. "Just once."

"Whoa, whoa," Rory waved a hand in Amy's face. "Still here, remember?"

Amy blinked hard. Either it had been the cologne, the amount of muscle underneath the detective's top or his slightly purring voice that had hypnotised her, but she assumed it was all three. "Look, you can't do that!"

"Why not?" The smirk was back.

"Because...because..." Amy floundered. "I'm _married!_"

"So?"

Inspiration. "I already had one with the Doctor!"

"You _what?_" Rory looked at her, aghast. "Amy –"

"It was only a kiss!" Amy rolled her eyes. "It was nothing."

"That's what they all say..." Hoffman leaned in again, but Amy pushed his head away with her hand.

"You try that again," She growled. "And I swear I _will_ bite your head off."

"Just you try." He teased.

"Umm..." All three turned to the uncomfortable-looking agent. "_I'm_ still here too!"

"Rigg," Hoffman said sternly. "You tell anyone outside of this room and I'll set this woman on you."

"Since when," Amy's eyes flashed. "Did I take orders from _you?_"

"Because you'd be affected by it just as much as me."

"Fair point."

"So," Hoffman turned to Amy, ignoring Rory and Rigg. "Who is this 'Doctor'?"

Amy winked. "There are some things on a need-to-know basis: that's one of them."

"Ah, so you're secretive too?" Hoffman grinned. "You shouldn't bother; I _always_ find out in the end."

"And I suppose there are no secrets _you'd_ like to tell me before I find them out?" Amy teased.

He frowned slightly and opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment the Doctor rushed like a whirlwind into the room, followed by a fed-up looking Erickson, Perez and Strahm.

"Alright, Team Pond," The Doctor danced about the room. "Grab your coats and your emergency hair extensions; we're going on an adventure."

"Where are we going?" Amy smiled, catching onto his enthusiasm.

"A crime scene," The Doctor spun to her, beaming. "And not just any old crime scene, a _confidential_ crime scene. A crime scene no-one else has investigated yet."

"With the 'Police: Do Not Cross' tape?" Amy asked, playing along.

"Yes!" The Doctor grabbed her shoulders and jumped up and down happily. "I've never been in one of those before...well, at least with permission..."

"Oh, yeah...great." Amy looked at Hoffman and mouthed: _Help me out here!_

Hoffman took his time walking over. "Mark Hoffman, on the Jig –"

"Ah, Hoffman," The Doctor let go of Amy and shook his hand enthusiastically. "Great to meet you, traffic or dog?"

"I'll go with the traffic one, thanks." Hoffman smiled wryly.

"You dirty liar!" The Doctor turned to Erickson. "So, are we ready to go?"

"Sir, they're allowed to go?" Hoffman sounded confused.

"Yep, clearly you never got my text," The Doctor flung his arm round Hoffman's shoulders. "Mark Hoffman, we are now officially part of your team. Now, lead the way to your rather slow-sounding car."

Erickson cleared his throat. "Actually, we're taking mine. Unless of course you'd like to drive with Hoffman."

"No, no, we're good with you, aren't we Amy?" Rory said quickly, grabbing hold of Amy's hand.

"Uh, yeah, sure Rory," Amy winced. "But a little less tight: blood circulation is still counted as important you know."

"Sorry." Rory loosened his grip. Hoffman smirked, but only half-heartedly. It occurred to Amy that his face had clouded over when the Doctor had said they were helping him, but she couldn't work out why. Maybe he did have a secret he wasn't telling her...

"So, shall we go?" Erickson gestured to the door.

"Sure, why on Earth not?" The Doctor strolled towards the door. "In fact, why on Mars not, Venus not, Raxacoricofallapatorius not..."

"Is he always like this?" Hoffman asked Amy.

"Yep," Amy nodded. "Always."

"Ok, let's go." Strahm gave Hoffman a cool look. "Hoffman."

"Strahm." Hoffman nodded stiffly. The two glared at each other before Perez took Strahm's arm and with a cautious look at Hoffman left the room.

"Come on Amy," Rory squeezed her hand. "Time to get our Inspector Clouseu on."

"What are you trying to say about my sleuthing skills? Some flattery does actually go a long way, you know."

"Just think about it!" Hoffman called after her.

"I don't want to!" Amy snapped, but she was smiling too.

He winked cockily. "C'mon, you know you want to!"

"I'm not listening, la la la la la!"

Hoffman laughed, but his smile died after Amy had left the room.

"I'm so sorry." He said quietly to an empty space, apologising for what he'd have to do.

Then he followed the others out.

**Reason for the Xs: the line-breaking thing doesn't work any more on my computer.**

**More HoffmanXAmy later on, do you think the pairing would ever actually work? Let me know!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"So...we're trying to bring down a guy who cuts jigsaw pieces from his victims after they've played games involving a lot of pain, physically and mentally." Amy turned to Rory, who was sulking in silence in the seat next to hers. "Sounds a little like my P.E classes, only without pieces being taken out of you."

Erickson groaned, and Strahm face palmed himself. Hoffman – who had decided after all to join them in Erickson's Volvo – grinned at her. She smiled back.

"Pond," Said the Doctor solemnly. "This is a serious situation: for once, there's no time for jokes."

Amy stared. "You're joking. He's joking, right?"

"Oh, of course I am!" He cracked up. "There's always, _always_ time for a wisecrack or two!" He leaned in conspiratorially to Hoffman. "I can't believe I kept up the acting for so long!"

"I really wouldn't say things like that in front of Mark, Doctor," Strahm said, spitting Hoffman's name out like it was poison. "He might get ideas."

Hoffman sarcastically made the Justin Bieber love heart at him. "Love ya too, Peter."

Strahm turned back to the Doctor. "You see?"

"See? I don't know what I'm meant to see," He leaned over and pointed out the window. "But what I'm seeing right now is a great big crime scene with 'Police: Do Not Cross' tape."

And, of course, they were. As Amy stepped out into the chaos, she suddenly felt very very small indeed. _Amy Pond,_ she thought. _What the hell are you doing?_

"Relax," Hoffman patted her on the shoulder. "You get used to it after a while."

"But...this is madness!"

"Then I'll correct myself: you go _mad_ after a while."

"Yeah," Rory said from where he had materialised at Amy's side. "It shows."

Hoffman's eyes flashed, but he nodded stiffly and merged with the group of agents walking inside the building. Rory made to follow, but Amy caught his arm.

"What," She hissed. "Was the point of that?"

"Amy, you don't understand what I'm seeing," Rory shook her when she snorted. "First you two are fighting, then you're flirting with him and giving him ideas."

"I am doing nothing of the sort!" Amy protested.

"Well, it's not what it looks like to me."

"Oh, you are _so_ paranoid..."

"Amy, please...just stay away from him, yeah? For me."

Amy rolled her eyes. "You are blowing this out of proportion, you know that? Ok, fine, but if he talks to me, I am going to say something back. Same if he insults me in any way."

Rory nodded, then held out his hand. "Ok. Deal?"

Amy smiled and hugged him. "Deal. You've got to stop doubting the fact that I love you."

"I know. It's just a little hard to believe at times, that's all."

Amy pecked him on the lips. "Well, start believing."

And they followed the others inside.

xXx

"Her name is Lily Jones," Strahm filled the Doctor in as he crouched by the corpse. "33, Caucasian. She was killed by –"

"I think we can all tell what she was killed by, thanks." Amy gagged. Three bullet holes joined each other, cracking part of the head wide open. A gun was set in a maze of an intricate device, attached to a timer displaying the time **00:00**.

Hoffman gave her a sympathetic look. "You wanna go outside for a minute?"

"No, I'm fine." Amy joined the Doctor, trying to breathe through her mouth. "So, why are you getting that thing out?"

"Hmm?" The Doctor didn't look up from whatever he was doing with the sonic screwdriver. "What?"

"Surely this is an open-and-shut case?" Amy tried to read the Doctor's body language. "I mean, the woman failed her twisted 'game', gun went off, bang bang bang, and here we are. So why are we here?"

"I can answer that," Perez pointed to the gun. "The device still has a full cartridge."

"I'm sorry, what?" Amy was confused. "But –"

"I know," Perez nodded. "It shouldn't be possible, but it is. The gun never fired; the electronics show that the timer stopped five seconds before the gun should have gone off – and then was reset to zero time a few minutes later."

"So..." Amy turned to Hoffman. "The woman was shot by Jigsaw soon after she'd completed the trap, who then reset the time to make it look like she failed?"

"You'd think that," He nodded. "However, that goes against his MO – if she survived her 'test' she should've gone free. Besides that, there's no jigsaw piece cut out from her."

"Well, that's all true enough," The Doctor suddenly straightened up and put the sonic screwdriver away, his face deadly serious. "But I'm afraid this doesn't fit in with any human MO either."

"Oh, great," Rory muttered. "More aliens – just what we need."

Amy shushed him. "What did the sonic pick up?"

"Radiation particles from a teleportation device – poor old Lily Jones was killed miles from here." He crouched down by the body again. "And..."

"And what?"

The Doctor looked sheepishly at Erickson. "Look, I know you're not supposed to handle evidence at a crime scene, but to make my point I need some of your least squeamish agents to...pick up the body for a few seconds."

"You _what?_" Erickson was apoplectic. "Doctor, I forbid you to –"

"Fine, where do you want me?" Hoffman walked casually over to the Doctor, who beamed.

"Brilliant, first volunteer, good man! Anyone else?" Silence. "Oh come on, otherwise I'll have to pick people!"

Strahm sullenly slunk forward, followed by Rigg and another male agent Amy didn't recognise.

"Excellent!" The Doctor patted Strahm on the back, shook Rigg's hand and looked curiously at the third man. "And you are...?"

"Eric," He answered. "Eric Matthews."

"Well then, Eric, if you could take the head...Hoffman and Strahm, for once please work together and lift the upper and lower torso...stop glaring and start working, chop chop..."

With the Doctor giving instructions, the four men lifted the corpse that had been Lily Jones. If it weren't for the grisly situation Amy would've been admiring the amount of muscle on show - especially as Hoffman had taken his police issue jacket off – but at last the body was off the floor.

"So," The Doctor looked at Amy. "Do you see what I mean?"

"Umm..." Amy scanned the scene, but she couldn't see anything wrong until –

"Oh my God..." Amy followed Rory's line of sight, and froze.

"Well, that makes it a definite alien MO."

"Exactly," The Doctor nodded at the floor. "As they say, the lights are on but no-one's home – at least, that's what they would say if someone had no shadow."

xXx

"So, what exactly does a missing shadow mean?" Amy asked. They were sitting in a corner of the room away from the bustling activity of the FBI. Hoffman was pretty much at the heart of this, but he kept looking over at her like he wanted to join her.

The Doctor craned his neck round to see whether anyone was listening, and then whispered, "It means that whatever they're planning is almost done."

Amy leaned closer to him. "How can you tell?"

"Amy, this has been going on longer than the FBI knows – they wouldn't give themselves away this easily unless..."

"...Unless they don't need to worry about being found out anymore." Amy realised.

"Exactly," The Doctor's face was partially covered in shadows. "And that's particularly worrying because –"

"What the hell?" The two of them whirled round. A slim blond woman with her hair in a ponytail was standing in the doorway.

Erickson took a step towards her. "Ahh, Miss Jill Tuck. How exactly did you get past Security?"

"They're watching TV," Jill snapped, her brown eyes eagle sharp as she took in the scene. "And don't try to skip past the subject: what the hell happened here?"

"Another Jigsaw murder," Strahm looked at her hard. "Bit ironic that your ex-husband killed someone in your own drug clinic – a place where you 'help' people..."

Jill's eyes narrowed. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

Erickson took a firm grasp of her upper arm. "Miss Tuck, I strongly advise you to leave the premises before –"

"Before what?" Jill glared at him. "Get your hands off me: I work here, I have the right to be here as much as you do!"

"She's right, you know!" Amy called as she and the Doctor joined Jill and Erickson.

Jill frowned. "Hang on, who –"

"Oh, I'm the Doctor, this is Amy Pond, my assistant." The Doctor said cheerfully, shaking Jill's hand.

"And I'm Rory," Rory chipped in. "I'm her husband."

"Yeah, I guessed by the rings." Jill ignored Amy and Rory and focused on the Doctor. "How long will it be until I can work again?"

"Oh, not too long," The Doctor reassured her. "At least until we find out which aliens are trying to destroy the human race this time..."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Don't worry, nothing serious, don't panic."

"Great: a guy in a bow tie raving about the end of the world is telling me not to panic. Helpful."

"Ooo, that _hurt_..."

"Anyway," Erickson turned back to the agents, who had stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. "No-one told you to stop, so keep going! And you –" His phone vibrated as he glared at Jill. "I want you off this site by the time I come back from taking this, or I'll have you arrested for trespassing unauthorised on this site."

"Funny," Said Jill, smirking. "I thought this guy 'trespassed' all the time."

Erickson wheeled round to stare at her. "Wha – how?

"You left your folders lying around." Jill shrugged. "I thought it was mine. Shame I forgot I don't do things like that..."

Erickson's face turned red. "Just...get out." He said harshly before stalking from the room.

"Temper, temper." Jill chuckled, before moving further into the room.

"I like this woman." Amy grinned at Rory.

"I'm not so sure..." Rory frowned.

Amy sighed. "Look, Rory, stop being so paranoid: I don't even _like _wom –"

"No," Rory jerked his head towards Jill. "I mean, _look_."

Amy looked. It seemed Hoffman had been trying to catch Jill's eye throughout her whole tirade, and now Erickson had gone he had finally succeeded. Jill had just walked over to him, and he was murmuring something quietly into her ear. Amy was sure for a second that Jill had looked round briefly at her, but then she said something to Hoffman and walked away from him down a corridor to the right of them. After looking round to check whether they had been noticed, he followed her.

Rory whistled. "Wow, _someone's_ busy!"

"Shut up," Amy elbowed him in the ribs. "Didn't you see Jill? She looked right at me, like he was saying something about me..."

"God, you flatter yourself." Rory rolled his eyes. "Look, Mark Hoffman is a dirty great womanizer: get over it."

"No chance: something is going on and I'm going to find out what it is."

"I little bit of rumpy pumpy, maybe?"

"_God_, Rory, you know what I mean!" She walked away from him.

"Oi, where are you going?" He called after her.

"To see what Mr 'Dirty Great Womanizer' is up to," Amy replied, disappearing down the corridor. "And I hope it isn't 'rumpy pumpy', otherwise in for a nasty surprise..."

xXx

"Erickson, I hope you don't take offence – well, actually I don't really care – but wasn't that a little bit harsh?" The Doctor had followed Erickson outside with Perez and Strahm, and was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

"She's a nuisance," Erickson said coldly, slipping his phone back into his jacket. "I've got a really big hunch that she knows where John Kramer is, but she isn't telling..."

"Well, you wouldn't would you?" The Doctor took a few steps towards Erickson. "You let anything slip, then it could cost you as much as the other person. And that's exactly what you've been doing to me."

Erickson's face was unreadable. "I don't know what you're talking about."

The Doctor purposefully invaded Erickson's personal bubble. "Erickson, I wasn't lying in your office: I didn't have a clue about the tracking signal, how it found me et cetra. But you've forgotten something about me: I'm a Time Lord, and – I'm not being proud – I'm a hell of a lot smarter than you. And I know that you've brought me here because someone or something wanted you to. Hence the phone call."

Erickson stiffened. "You're making assumptions."

"Oh am I?" The Doctor pointed to where three pitch black vans were parking next to them, with men with guns and black army fatigues jumping out and storming towards them. "And who are they? The Telletubbies?" He switched on his most cheesy grin and held both arms over his head as the soldiers stopped in a semicircle around them. "Alright, see, know weapons. So what is it you wa –"

For once in his nine-hundred-and-eight years of life, the Doctor was silenced. A blond girl with her hair in a ponytail in the same fatigues as the grim-faced men around her had stepped into view, her brown eyes sparkling with all-too-familiar mischief and delight, her lips drawn back in a grin reminiscent of a regeneration long ago.

"I thought that would be your reaction!" The girl laughed. "Oh, this is _brilliant!_"

The Doctor found his voice. "Hello Jenny."

Jenny winked. "Hello Dad."

xXx

Amy inched her way down the deserted corridor. She'd left behind the hustle and bustle of the investigation long ago – how frigging big was this building? – and it felt way too quiet somehow. A light flickered on and off over her head: there were no windows to let in light. The wallpaper was peeling, a broken pipe dripped overhead. You wouldn't think this was a drug clinic.

"_Crap_." Amy flattened herself against the wall as a bang resounded down the corridor. She laughed shakily and kept going. A door was set in the wall next to her and she heard the murmur of voices inside. She pressed her ear to the crack...

"_For God's sake, Jill!"_ Hoffman's voice. He was clearly the one who had slammed his hand down on the table; his voice was angry and frustrated.

"_You know the rules, Hoffman."_ Jill's voice was calm, icy even. _"We can't afford to let anyone find out."_

He still sounded frustrated, but he sounded tired as well. Amy could just imagine him pacing inside, his hands running through his hair. _"There's got to be another solution to this..."_

"_You know there isn't; there's only his way."_

"_I DON'T WANT TO KILL HER!"_ Amy flinched – every muscle in her body was telling her to run, but first she wanted to know what she had let herself in for. She heard him sigh, heard a creak as a flopped into a chair.

"_It's not killing, Mark; it's a test. If she fails, yes, she dies, but that's her choice._

"_It's not her choice: its fucking murder."_

"_You're one to talk, Mark. How many people have died, how many have you let die when he 'murders' them? You killed Seth Baxter –"_

"_He killed my sister, don't drag that into this!"_

"_But you still killed him, so how different does that make you from the rest of us?"_ Silence. _"Besides, if you hate what we're doing so much, why don't you leave?"_

"_You know too damn well that I can't."_

"_So you might as well get it over with; Amanda's waiting outside."_

Another sigh. Then: _"Please."_ His tone sounds so pleading that Amy almost forgives him for deceiving her. _"Don't make me..."_

Amy hears Jill laugh and doesn't like it. _"Oh, come off it Hoffman. Only one more person in a list of many...don't look at me like that, you and I both know there's no going back now, not ever, so will you just –"_

It happens in slow motion. Amy took a step forward to press her ear closer to the crack – and trod on the end of the laces on her blue Converses. She fell into the room, the door banging against the wall as she hit the ground. She just caught a glimpse of Hoffman raising his face from his hands and looking at her in shock before the world speeded up again.

"SHIT!" Jill dived at her, but Amy rolled away back out into the corridor. Once outside she scrambled to her feet and ran – right into the arms of Hoffman.

"AAA –" Her scream was cut off by his hand. "Get off me, you bastard!" Her yell was muffled, but she kept struggling. She _had_ to get away, had to tell the Doctor...

"I'm sorry," She glared defiantly up at him as he picked out a syringe. "I'm so sorry."

She felt a sharp pain in her neck as it entered her, and tried to fight against the drug. But it was too late, and Hoffman's arms suddenly felt so warm and safe even though she knew they weren't, _he_ wasn't...

"You're not..." She whispered as his face faded to black, and she could feel nothing except his arms passing her like a doll to Jill's.

And then there was nothing at all.

xXx

"Wait..." Erickson frowned. "You have a daughter?"

"Well, not exactly." The Doctor admitted. The soldiers had put their guns down and they looked unsure of themselves, not knowing what to do. "A machine took my DNA and...well, grew her, to be blunt. A DIY soldier, grown with all the skills needed for warfare. Last time I saw her," He glared at her. "She was dead."

Jenny looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, but by the time I'd regenerated you'd gone."

"So you _did_ regenerate!" The Doctor hugged her. "Two hearts, regeneration capacity, the whole shebang!"

"I've been trying to find you for so long..."

"I'm glad you did," The Doctor smiled, arms still wrapped round her waist. "I need to show you Barcelona, great place, great footballers too..."

Jenny wriggled out of his grasp. "No," She said seriously. "I needed to find you to tell you that –" She turned to the soldiers. "You can go." They saluted and walked back to the van.

"Hang on a minute," Strahm looked shocked. "They're _our_ –"

"Yes, they're your agents, blah de blah blah..." Jenny rolled her eyes and grinned at the Doctor. "Blimey, ain't it funny when they look so shocked about the smallest things?"

"Yes," The Doctor smiled wanly. "Anyway, what did you need to tell me?"

But before Jenny could say anything, Rory ran up. "Sorry," He panted. "But have you seen Amy?"

"No," Frowned the Doctor. "Why?"

"Well, she went off after Hoffman and Jill, and she hasn't come back!"

The Doctor looked at Jenny. "You up for some running?"

Jenny winked. "You betcha."

All three of them ran inside, into the corridor – and practically trampled Hoffman and Jill underfoot.

"First: Ow." Hoffman winced. "Second: Why –"

Rory pinned him against the wall. "Where's Amy, you son of a bitch?"

Hoffman looked confused. "Amy? No, why?"

"She went off looking for you."

Jill frowned. "Now you come to mention it, I think she went down there," She pointed down the corridor. "But I'm not sure."

"Thank you." The Doctor nodded as they set off again.

As they turned a corner, Hoffman caught Jill's eye. "I hate you."

"The feeling is very, very mutual, Detective." He watched her go.

Meanwhile, Rory reached an empty back-street car-park first, crashing through a side door. A van was waiting outside, the engine on. A hooded figure was just closing the doors, but when it wheeled round to face them, Rory only just saw the pig-mask covering its face before in whizzed round to the driver's door and jumped in, slamming it and revving the engine.

"NO!" Rory screamed as he made a lunge at the rear doors, but the van started moving and he could only watch helplessly as it screeched out the car-park and out of sight.

"Amy..." He whispered as the Doctor and Jenny joined him.

"She'll be fine." The Doctor reassured him.

But deep inside, he wasn't so sure...

**Dadundaaaannnn! Chapter 4 coming up as soon as possible...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

They drove back to the FBI headquarters in absolute silence, the Doctor staring sullenly out the window, Rory with his face buried in his hands. Once there, the Doctor sprang out before the Volvo had even stopped moving and sprinted inside. Rory and the others followed more slowly, Jill and Rory bringing up the rear.

"I'm so sorry about Amy." Jill said quietly to him as they went up the stairs to Erickson's office.

"It's ok," Rory wiped his face angrily with the back of his hand; he had been crying and didn't want anyone – especially Hoffman – to see that. "Seriously, _she_ will be ok. I married her, for God's sake; I know she's tough enough to get through this. She's survived way too much for her to die...'sides, the Doctor said..." He stopped talking: his voice had almost cracked and he was scared he would start crying again.

Jill rubbed his arm. "It'll be fine. Trust me." She said soothingly. Hoffman turned round and glared at her – Rory could almost say he looked outraged. Jill stared him out. "Problems, Detective?" She sounded mocking. He turned back round, visibly seething.

The Doctor was already pacing when they walked into Erickson's office, Jenny gazing arms folded out of the window. "Right, we need to think: where would be the best place to put an innocent girl in a trap that will either kill her or leave her severely damaged, mentally, physically or both of the above?"

"Somewhere deserted?"

"Genius, Strahm, genius."

"Shut it, Hoffman."

"Since when do I take orders from you?"

"Oh, for God's sake, _stop bickering!_" The Doctor and Rory turned on them both angrily. They shut up.

"Quayside?" Rory suggested. "There's plenty of abandoned industrial sites down there, we drove past it."

"No, too many luxury apartments nearby." Perez shook her head. "And there's no guarantee that he'll be undisturbed: we pick up around ten stoned teenagers round there a week."

"So that's cancelled out," The Doctor stared moodily out of the window at the surrounding city. "What else?"

Jill shrugged. "There's no other place that it could happen – the only places I can think of are way out of the city, and chloroform doesn't knock people out for that long."

The Doctor looked at her. "How do you know that?"

"I went to medical school for a while. Go figure."

"Actually there is another place that we could check," Hoffman broke in suddenly. "The Gideon Meat factory. It was constructed by John before he turned psycho, but the business company that ran the factory went bankrupt and the place closed down. Judging by the history of it, I'd say that is our best shot."

"Excellent!" The Doctor was suddenly animated again, a lot more like his usual self. Jill shot Hoffman a dark look.

"Problems, Jill?" He asked. She looked mutinously away.

"Right Erickson, I think I can take it from here." The Doctor clapped him on the back. "You can leave us to it."

"I'm sorry," Erickson started. "I'm afraid I can't –"

"Oh, abandon the rule book, Erickson," The Doctor forcefully walked Strahm, Perez and Erickson to the door, ignoring their protests. "There's no such word as 'can't' – at least, that's what they want you to think...I'll only need Hoffman for this, you lot can go back to brainwashing yourselves with ground-up Axian poison..." He shut the door firmly and glared hard at Hoffman and Jill. "...And I can talk to you two. Sit."

Jill forced a poker face. "What about?"

The Doctor glared at them. "About everything you're not telling me."

xXx

Amy groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She felt groggy from the after-effects of whatever had knocked her out, so it took a while for her to get fully awake.

"God...where's the light switch?" She fumbled in the darkness for one, but at that moment red light flashed on from outside...it was at this point that she realised that she was in an opaque plastic tank. Three pipes – big enough for her to squeeze through but no big enough for her to turn around and come back – were attached to three of the four sides: left, right and centre.

And attached to the cramped ceiling on a length of string was a tape player.

"Better not be any Justin Bieber on here." Amy swallowed, pulling it down. An ominous gurgle came from overhead, but she ignored it and pressed play.

"_Hello Amy,"_ A low, gravely voice began. _"I want to play a game."_

"Definitely not Justin Bieber then..."

"_Before you knew the Doctor you knew a life of absolute security, with little chance of death knocking at your door. But suddenly he appears with death stalking at his heels, and you willingly let him drag you headlong into various situations with no regard for your safety or your life. I deem this unacceptable, and now you must come face to face with the happy-go-lucky life you lead._

"_The pipes you see before you are your only way out of your current situation. However, choose wisely: two of these three pipes will lead to a tank that will fill with water as soon as it senses your weight entering it. You will drown, the consequence of you plunging recklessly into death without thinking._

"_The other one however will lead to safety. But just as you continue to rush into yet more danger after only just avoiding the last one, so there are more tanks and more choices._

"_Don't think that you can stay in one place until your precious Doctor comes to save you: as soon as this tape ends, this tank will begin to fill with water. As soon as you crawl into one of the pipes, the weight sensors will turn off the water flow, but if you enter into the relative safety of the right tank with more pipes leading from it, the water flow will start again in that tank._

"_Will you be able to make the right choices, or will death finally catch up on you after all this time?_

"_Live or die, make your choice."_

Amy screamed as cold water began to pour from the ceiling, hitting her in the face. "Oh God," She whimpered. The red light turned the water black as it swirled around her ankles and began to rise.

She looked at the three pipes, the darkness inside them yawning like an open mouth.

Left, right, centre.

"Oh, fuck it all!" She muttered, using language she wouldn't usually use as the climbed into the left-hand pipe and began to squeeze her way through.

xXx

"You know where she is."

Silence met the Doctor's statement. Both Hoffman and Jill were wearing poker faces now.

"For God's sake!" The Doctor slammed his hands down on the tabletop, making them flinch. Rory stared at him; he had never seen the Doctor this angry before.

"Sorry," The Doctor sighed, slumping down on the desk looking defeated. "Ok, let's start again, shall we? Where is Amy Pond?"

"Let's answer this again: we don't know." Jill replied mechanically.

Rory stared hard at Hoffman. "You're being pretty quiet, aren't you?"

"What evidence do you have that proves we have any idea of where Amy is?" Hoffman asked the Doctor calmly.

The Doctor stood and moved to stand in front of him, a move which Hoffman reciprocated. "For starters, when I said 'You dirty liar!' when I first met you and you said you were late because of traffic, that's because I knew that you'd been getting 'games' ready: there were iron particles all over your hands, it has a very particular feel you know. Secondly, I caught you looking confused when Perez was explaining how the gun device worked – you hadn't made it, you hadn't seen any blueprints of it, you hadn't been the one murmuring an innocent person for a change. So you were wondering who had."

"Do _you_ know?" Hoffman asked quietly.

"I'll help you if you help me."

Hoffman paused, and then nodded. "I wasn't lying about the Gideon Meat factory – that's where we usually...put the games in place."

"Hoffman!" Jill stood, eyes blazing. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Oh, get over yourself Jill." Hoffman snapped at her. "He already knows, there's no point."

"You want him to help her!"

"Well, maybe I do! Are you going to do anything to stop me?"

Jill shrugged. "Meh, there's not very much point anyway..."

Rory stood up and would've slapped the stupid smirk off her face if Jenny hadn't held him back. "What do you mean?" Jill remained obstinately silent. "_What do you mean, you bitch?_"

"I'm not going to say anything if you don't ask politely." Jill said self-righteously.

Hoffman sighed. "Look, let me try." He backhanded Jill so hard she fell on the floor. "ANSWER THE QUESTION, BITCH!"

"Thanks." Rory smiled briefly.

"No problem."

"You want an answer?" Jill smiled sweetly. "Well, here's one: Amanda designed the trap Amy's in."

Hoffman's face paled and he groaned. "Oh, _shit_..."

"What?" The Doctor looked at Hoffman, concerned. "What is wrong with Amanda?

"Everything's wrong with Amanda," Hoffman whispered hoarsely. "She designs _inescapable_ traps."

Rory blinked. "So you mean –"

"Yeah," Hoffman nodded. "Amy's got no chance."

"That's where you're wrong, Mark me old mucker." The Doctor said lightly, his eyes flashing. "She has a chance."

"And what is that?"

"Me." He answered as he raced out.

xXx

Amy felt like she had been crawling through these tubes in the nightmarish crimson light forever. She felt more scared than she ever had been before, and she was constantly paranoid that every tank she came to would have no exits. But she had made the right choices so far, and as Amy rounded another turn and entered another trap she felt more hopeful than afraid. She looked around as the familiar gurgle resounded above her head –

At three blank walls.

"No," She whispered as water splashed down. "_No._"

She turned to go back down the tube but this time the water had risen quickly and it had already filled it.

"NO!" She screamed in desperation. The water rose up her neck and she sobbed in one last breath before the water went over her head.

The world was a hellish red and black, and she needed to breathe so badly...

For the first time in years Amy prayed, but not to some God.

_Please, Doctor...please, save me..._

And then the world blurred and faded out.

**So, did you like the trap? I know it probably wouldn't be THAT intricate, but you know...**

**Next chapter coming up when I have time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Gotcha!" Suddenly Amy found herself being dragged – roughly, mind you – backwards by the back of her jacket. She sloshed out with the water and into someone's arms. The experience seemed vaguely familiar...

The Doctor grinned delightedly as Amy's eyes snapped open and glared into Hoffman's sheepish blue ones. "Ah, Amy Pond is back in business...thank God the TARDIS stopped at the right Time for a change, a few seconds later –"

"You." Amy was still glaring at Hoffman.

"Ah," The Doctor sensed the tension in the air at last. "Now, Amy, before you overreact –"

"_Overreact?_" Amy struggled out of Hoffman's arms and fell in a sodden heap back onto the ground. "He put me in that thing, just 'cos I was getting too close to his 'hobby'!"

"One," Hoffman counted off. "It's not a hobby – I'm not here of my own choice. Two, it was Jill's plan, not mine. And three, I just helped save your life."

"Oh, and that makes everything better –" Amy stopped short and rounded on Rory, Jenny and the Doctor, who took a step backwards (Jill had decided to drive). "Wait, he did?"

"Yeah," Rory said grudgingly. "He did."

"To be honest," Jenny elaborated before the Doctor could say anything. "Without him, we wouldn't have got here in time."

Amy turned back to Hoffman, who half smiled. "Am I forgiven at all?"

Amy sighed. "Yeah, I guess. Thanks." She took a step closer. "But there's just one thing that I really need to do..."

Hoffman cocked his head and smiled slyly. "Have you been thinking about what I said, then?"

Amy nodded slowly, moving her face closer to his so that their lips were in touching distance. "Well...I'd better get on with it then, hadn't I?"

"I like that idea." Hoffman leaned in those last few inches...

And then Amy slapped him open-palmed around the face.

"Oww!" Hoffman staggered backwards, the left side of his face turning red. "What –"

"Just 'cos I've forgiven you don't mean you don't deserve a good slap-fest." Amy advanced, one hand raised.

Rory grabbed her arm. "Amy, leave it, yeah? He only needs one slap from you – I find that gets the message across pretty well."

Amy sighed exasperatedly. "_Fine._" She pouted, stalking back to the Doctor and Jenny.

"Thanks mate." Hoffman breathed a sigh of relief, watching her go.

"Sorry, 'mate'," Rory grinned evilly. "You think it's all over, but the slap-fest has just begun."

"Wha –" Rory backhanded Hoffman on the other side of his face. This time the slap was so hard he was knocked over backwards. He glared up at Rory. "You bastard."

Rory laughed, helping him up. "Well, you did almost kill my wife – admit it, you deserved a lot more than that."

Hoffman didn't laugh. "Yeah, I know. Sorry."

"Cheer up." Rory punched him lightly in the shoulder. "You almost killed my wife, I had both the satisfaction of slapping you and watching you get slapped. Let's call it quits."

Hoffman shrugged and smiled, wincing a little. "Sounds good to me."

"Come on, you two!" The Doctor was starting to away from them, towards the door they had come through where the TARDIS was glowing its familiar blue light. "You can chat over a beer at the pub later...right now, I think it's time we met Mr John Kramer..."

xXx

"_You_." Jill stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening at the sight of the Doctor and his entourage heading towards her down the corridor.

"Yes, me." The Doctor said casually, continuing past her.

"And me too, you bitch." Amy spat as she walked past her. Hoffman, Rory and Jenny only acknowledged her with a glare.

"How – how did you get her out?" Jill had to break into a jog to keep up with them.

The Doctor waved the sonic screwdriver in the air. "Sonic interference with the plastic atoms caused them to break apart. In other words, at the right pitch the plastic shattered."

"Yeah, ok, but you've got her out now, problem solved." Jill panted – she made a mental note to go to the gym more often. "Can't you just – go?"

"I think I'd like to have a chat with your ex-husband first, thanks." The Doctor said lightly, but the hardness in his usually kind eyes promised that this would be a little more than just a 'chat'.

They suddenly emerged into the main room of the warehouse, the ceiling abruptly soaring above their heads, bright fluorescent lighting making all of them blink. Various tables lay around the room, traps in varying states of completion, deadliness and purpose crammed on every available space.

A young woman with long dark brown hair was working on one of them, her deep red t-shirt hitching at the waist as she reached up to tighten a screw in the contraption. On hearing them enter she whipped round, her dark eyes widening as she took in the group. Amy was shocked: she didn't only look young, she looked way too fragile to be doing this.

At least, that was the impression that she got before the girl opened her mouth.

"Mark, what the fuck?" She turned on the detective, revealing an inner core of iron.

"Nice to see you too, Amanda." Hoffman said, turning to the others. "Everyone, meet Amanda Young. And yes, she really is this much of a bitch."

"Did someone slap you, Hoffman?" Amanda asked sweetly, ignoring Hoffman's insult. "Your face is all red."

"That would've been me." Amy piped up. "Amy Pond, nice to meet you."

"HA!" Amanda laughed once, grinning like a maniac. "Mark Hoffman, detective – slapped by a girl!"

"Amanda young, ex-junkie – hit by a falling trap."

"Wha –" The trap behind her collapsed – the screw clearly hadn't been tightened enough. Hoffman laughed at Amanda's expression. "This. Isn't. Funny."

"Geez, ego hurt much?" Hoffman smirked.

"Not as badly as yours!"

"Sorry, my ego's too big to ever be deflated."

"It shows..." Amanda muttered, turning back to her work.

Hoffman laughed again, but quieter. "Come on, John's this way."

"_I'll_ take them, if you don't mind." Jill said coldly. "He is my ex-husband, after all. You stay here and help Amanda."

"Yay." Said Hoffman, his face blank. "What fun."

"The feeling's mutual, you bastard." Amanda said, her back turned to him.

Jill sighed. "Come on, just leave them to it."

As they left, the two of them started up again.

"_Hoffman, no the screw doesn't go there!"_

"_Excuse me, in your badly-drawn blueprint it says a screw should go here!"_

"_You're holding it upside down, you moron!"_

"_Well it makes a lot more sense holding it this way than it ever will if I hold it the right way!"_

Amy smiled. She remembered all those times with Rory when they'd been jumping lightly on each other's egos all the time, trying to see whose would deflate first. She'd always won, of course, but she'd always had more spirit than him, everyone had said so –

Wait. Amy stopped short. She thought back to when she'd first met Mark Hoffman. _'I like a woman with spirit'_ he'd said. Was it possible...?

"Come on Amy!" The Doctor called. She snapped back to reality and realised that everyone had gone through a door with plastic strips hanging over it like a curtain.

The first person she noticed was the blond man in what appeared to be a Doctor's coat who looked up as they all trooped in. He was young and cleanly shaved, and as his eyes met Amy's she had to look away: they were blue and contained just as much sadness as Hoffman's – how many people had he lost, she wondered.

The second person she noticed was just as imposing – if more than – as the blond man. He was standing as well, but he looked older, his hair white and his body thin. But the eyes – although the same colour as the other man's – were bright with intelligence and as sharp as the mind within. It reminded her of a venomous snake she'd seen at the London Zoo as a kid: its still looks were deceiving, but if you looked closer the eyes had exactly the same brightness and sharpness. Of course, the mouse put in its exhibit wouldn't have time to notice this before the snake moved like lightning and swallowed it whole.

It was this that made Amy sure she was looking at John Kramer, usually known as the Jigsaw Killer.

"Actually Amy," Amy was glad of a distraction from John's piercing gaze and looked at the Doctor. "This could take some time...maybe you should wait outside."

"Yeah, sure." Amy said, relieved. "Nice to meet you, Mr Kramer." She said to the sharp-eyed man, flushing when she remembered they hadn't actually been introduced. Embarrassed, she walked as fast as she could back the way she had come.

She'd rather bear Hoffman and Amanda's bickering than have to spend an unspecified time in that room.

xXx

"She's intimidated by me." John observed as Amy's footsteps died away.

The blond man snorted. "You think? Glaring at her like that wasn't exactly helping, was it?"

John glared at him. "I wasn't glaring at her."

"Well, to be honest I can't really tell your normal looking at someone to your glaring at someone." He turned to the Doctor and shook his hand. "I'm guessing we're the same profession. I'm Lawrence Gordon; I used to be a doctor."

"And I am the Doctor." The Doctor said cheerfully, shaking his hand. "No first name and no real profession. So why the past tense?"

"Him." Lawrence pointed at John, glaring.

"It's rude to point." John said calmly. He nodded at the Doctor. "I'm presuming you know who I am."

"Yep, that's good isn't it?" The Doctor said cheerfully. "No need for introductions."

"Uh...hello?" Jenny and Rory looked daggers at him.

"Oh, right. Apart from these two: Jenny is my daughter and Rory is Amy Pond's husband." The Doctor's smile faded away. "Which was sort of the reason I came here..."

"Told you this would happen..." Lawrence rolled his eyes, and then busied himself with a tray of medication.

"Actually, before we get to that subject," The Doctor looked John up and down. "Why are you standing up? You should be almost dead of colon cancer by now, with –"

"With an inoperable brain tumour, you think I'd forget something like that?" He shrugged. "It went."

"You what?"

"It went. Don't ask me how, it just showed up on tests done by Dr Gordon here."

"And they're not incorrect." Lawrence didn't turn round. "I ran the checks three times."

"But that's impossible!" Jenny frowned. "Cancer doesn't go away just like that, and even when it does that technology won't be invented until three centuries from now!"

"Well, there is a more simple explanation." The Doctor turned to her. "Jenny, were you searching for me to tell me that the Nightmare Children were back?"

"Yes, but...you said once that it was the _Nightmare Child_ – there's only one of them."

The Doctor met her gaze levelly. "That's what I thought. I was wrong."

"I'm sorry," John interrupted. "But how does this have any relevance to what we're talking about?"

"Oh, it has a lot of relevance to what we're talking about." The Doctor spun to face him. "They're keeping you alive because you're the closest thing they've got to their key to re-opening the Void."

xXx

"Soooo," Amy smirked at Hoffman, leaning over the table top. "I take it you get along with Amanda really well."

"Shut up." Hoffman said bluntly, his attention fixated on the trap in front of him. Amanda had stormed out of the room muttering about finding 'more equipment' after the trap had fallen apart for a third time. In this time Hoffman and Amanda had been arguing so much that Amy had half a mind to walk back into the other room and ask for some aspirin.

But at times through the time she'd been there watching them, she was almost certain that they were having a laugh. And that made her certain that she had to get the two of them together, no matter what.

"Well, I think that you like _her_, at least." Amy said slyly, propping her head up on her hands.

That got Hoffman's attention. He glared down at her, folding his arms across his chest. "And I think you don't catch onto things very quickly."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Well, she hates me."

"And you hate her?"

"Finally, you're getting there!"

"You haven't actually said that you agree with my statement..."

"And you haven't actually said where this is going, so spit it out now or don't say anything at all!"

That shut her up. He was just about to go back to what he was doing, when she said: "Storge, Philia, Eros or Agape?"

"For God's sake!" He snapped, finally catching on. "_I don't love Amanda!"_

"Ahh," Amy stood up and sauntered over to him. "So you understand what I was talking about?"

"We learnt about it in RS when I was at school..." He shook his head. "Forget it; I am _not_ getting involved in this conversation anymore." He turned away.

"Well, Storge is out of the question because that's a love of objects, and you'd have to be really sexist to view a woman as an object," Amy continued, watching carefully for a reaction. "Philia is a love of friends and family, and as you've made very plain, she's not exactly your friend."

"Exactly." Hoffman picked up a screwdriver. "So can we drop this?"

"No, there's still two other options!" Amy heard him sigh in exasperation, and quickly kept going. "Then there's Eros, and that's a possibility because it means sexual love, and you've got to admit that Amanda is pretty nice for the eyes."

"I haven't noticed." Hoffman snapped, but Amy noted that he had stopped working and, although he had his back to her, he was starting to listen.

"And last but not least there's Agape: unconditional love. She could hurt you a thousand times but you wouldn't stop loving her because she means way too much to you to ever give her up." Amy paused to let him speak. Silence. "So which one of those four is it?"

He still had his back to her. "I thought you said Storge and Philia didn't count in this case."

"Well, the first time I met you didn't exactly fill me with confidence for your anti-sexism tactics." He snorted. "And Philia...well, the whole hate-each-other act doesn't exactly cover the fact that you do sort of care about each other: brothers and sisters fight all the time, believe me, and at times – stop me if I'm wrong – it did seem like you were verging on being on friendly terms with each other." He didn't stop her.

"And also, you said you 'liked women with spirit'." She quoted his words with an innocent smile. "I think Miss Amanda Young is pretty spirited enough for you, so..." She tried to catch his eye. "Which one is it?"

"Honest answer?" Hoffman turned to look at her, and Amy could tell that he found the truth hard to come to terms with. "I don't know."

"HA! I was right!" Amy grinned triumphantly.

"Amy..."

"You really loooove her, you want to kiiiiss her, la la la laaaa la –"

"_Amy, quit it!_"

"Sorry." Amy tried to keep a straight face. "I'm just glad I'm right for a change."

"Well, just don't go on about it, 'kay?"

"Fine..." Hoffman was about to turn back to the trap when she had a sudden thought. "Hang on; you ever tried to find out her feelings for you?"

Hoffman groaned. "Didn't we already go over this? Let me say this slowly so you can understand: _she...hates...me!_"

"Uh, that's the impression _you've_ been trying to give," Amy winked. "Who's to say she's not been trying to send out that impression too?"

"Amy, you can stop meddling now..."

"Please? I'll bring it up in conversation; I'm _good_ at that kind of thing..." She saw that he was not convinced and put her hands together. "Pleeeeaaaaasssseeee...?"

Hoffman sighed. "Alright, alright. But trust me: hopes aren't very high."

"Oh, but you're getting yours up!"

"No I'm not."

"Oh, let's not go into the whole 'I'm right-you're wrong routune'...'sides, you know that I'll win – like last time!"

"Shut up!" He yelled after her as she rounded the corner. But he was smiling.

xXx

"Uh..." Rory looked confused. "Nightmare Children? Void? What...?"

"Ok, explanation needed," The Doctor took a deep breath and started talking. "The Nightmare Children were made by the Daleks in the Time War. They were meant to be their big, unstoppable weapon that would win the war for them, but they turned on their creators, and the Daleks ended up fighting them and us."

"'Us'?" John asked, raising a cynical eyebrow.

"Time Lords." The Doctor said abruptly. "Don't worry, I ended it: sealed them all in a time bubble – nothing can get in or out."

"Including your race." John noted.

"Yeah. Anyway, I had no idea of their numbers until recently: it turns out there were millions, thousands of millions, all doing the same thing."

"And that was?"

"The Nightmare Children are a unique race in one aspect: they don't need much to stay alive. They don't have to take on a form, they don't need light or dark or food or water. But one thing they do need – what they 'feed' on, if you like – is suffering. Pain, anger, sadness, sickness, all negative emotions. They could amplify it a little if they wanted for 'extra nutrition', but with millions dying every second...it didn't matter what species, they just latched on and stuffed themselves like parasites while whole families mourned."

"They should've been trapped in the Time bubble," Jenny chipped in. "But they found a rip in Space and Time and travelled through before it was sealed off. But when they reached the other side, there was less negative energy to feed on. True there was still quite a lot, but not enough to sustain a race of what had become billions."

"So they began to die out," The Doctor continued. "And their numbers decreased from billions to just over a thousand, and yet they were still dying. But then they discovered their powers to amplify the negative emotions. They discovered that they could take temporary forms, although this wasted needed energy. With these two discoveries in mind they began to manipulate the bereaved into causing hurt to someone else, and so they have sustained themselves for all these years."

"And how exactly is this linked to me?" John asked coldly.

"They saw that your methods could cause pain not only to the person in the trap, but people outside of it later on; it was like having two meals in one. But then, of course, they discovered that if they got out of the trap they were allowed to go free..."

"...Which is why they've been making up 'games' of their own!" Rory realised.

"Exactly! And it doesn't end there..." The Doctor paced, getting excited as he gabbled the words out with barely time to breathe. "The Void is formless, colourless, nothingness – what you would call 'hell'. I closed it with armies of Daleks and Cybermen trapped inside – thousands of them. If they're ever released, the whole universe is threatened. Millions would die...and the numbers of Nightmare Children would begin to grow once again."

"How do they mean to re-open the Void?" Lawrence looked a little shell-shocked: Rory sympathised, he'd been exactly the same when the Doctor had come into his life.

"...That bit I don't know." The Doctor looked sheepish. "But I promise you, I _will_ find out. Now then," The Doctor looked at John. "Back to what I wanted to talk to you about: why did you put Amy in that trap?"

John looked uneasy. "Problem there, Doctor: I didn't."

The Doctor stopped dead. "...What?"

"I had no knowledge of the actual game taking place: Amanda built it and explained what and who it was for, and I forbade her to use it. Unfortunately, that was only after she'd knocked out your friend and brought her here. We left her tied up near the trap – no-one touched her since then."

A chill went up Rory's spine. "So if you didn't put her in it..."

The Doctor ran for the door. "AMY!"

xXx

"Hey, help me with this instead of just standing there!"

"Finally noticed I'm here Amanda?" Amy raised an eyebrow, lounging in the doorway. "Wow, you must be _engrossed_ in all this rusty metal!"

"Shut it!" Growled Amanda, struggling with a metal bar twice as big as her. "God, you're just as bad as Inspector Clouseau out there!"

"I take it you don't like him then..."

Amanda sensed something in her tone and put the bar down. "Ok: what are you getting at?" Amy made a big show of looking up and down the corridor and then shutting the door behind her with elaborate quietness. "Quit the dramatics: what do you mean?"

"I mean the subject of 'Inspector Clouseau' out there." Amy winked. "You like him, don't you?"

"What the fuck?" The explosion made Amy wince. "Is there something wrong with you? What makes you think that I like someone like...like..._him_? I mean, he's just...so..." She choked off into silence.

"He's just so...is this the game where I get to fill in the gaps in the sentence?" Amy clapped her hands together. "Ooo, I absolutely _love_ this game!"

"Amy..."

"Now, what could it be? Obnoxious? Readable? Dirty-minded?"

"_Amy..._"

"Sexy? Unforgettable? Good in bed – no, wait that's a whole part of a sentence, not a word...still, I think that deep down you really love him. So, do I get an answer? Do you love Mark –"

"AMY!" It was only then that Amy realised that Amanda wasn't looking at her, but _behind_ her. Her eyes were wide with horror and she was backing slowly away, feeling for the metal bar. Starting to back away as well, Amy turned round. A dark shape, blurred around the edges like a broken TV screen, was right in front of the door. Slowly it built itself up until it was almost solid, and then – still slightly see-through, it began to walk slowly towards them.

"W...what is that?" Amanda grabbed Amy's arm as the thing's form began to take more shape: a pair of red eyes regarded them emotionlessly from the darkness surrounding them.

Amy recognised the familiar prowl: she'd watched a programme on the Discovery Channel on lions and how they stalked their prey, and she had a sinking suspicion that they were the 'prey'. "I dunno...but I have a feeling it isn't as intrigued with metal as you...more like it likes the sight of _us_..." She swallowed.

The thing hissed and opened its mouth, revealing a mouthful of razors.

Amy and Amanda screamed as it advanced.

xXx

"Where's the fire?" Hoffman asked as the Doctor sprinted into the main room. "Because if you smelt smoke, sorry but that was Jill's cooking."

"Up yours!" Jill growled, walking into the room. "What's going on?"

The Doctor grabbed Hoffman by the shoulders. "Where's Amy?"

"Collecting metal with Amanda, why?"

At that moment they both heard screaming. They looked at each other, and then ran in its general direction.

Hoffman banged on the door in question. "_Amanda!_"

"MARK!" Came the desperate reply.

"It's locked!" The Doctor had tried the door and was now applying the sonic screwdriver: the green light played over his frantic features. "Amy, can you hear me?"

"_Yes, of course I can! Doctor, help us, PLEASE!_"

"Hold on!" The Doctor bellowed as the lock on the door clicked – thankfully, the door hadn't been deadlock sealed – and he and Hoffman rushed into the room –

Just in time to see the Nightmare Child reach Amy and Amanda. It seemed to envelope them, and Amanda reached out a desperate hand before they were both enveloped by black.

"NO!" Hoffman sprang at the black cloud but it was too late: with a fizzing sound it disappeared – Amy and Amanda with it. The two men stared blankly at the empty space, but it didn't do much good: they were most certainly, unmistakeably gone.

"Where've they gone?" Hoffman croaked. "Doctor, where has it taken them?"

"I don't know, but..." The Doctor buried his face in his hands. "Oh, Amy, I'm so sorry..."

There was no need to say it: both women were as good as dead.

**YET ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER! Hehehe...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Uhh..." Amy groaned as she came back into consciousness. The last thing she remembered was the Doctor's anguished face before the blackness engulfed both herself and Amanda. He had actually seemed scared, and when the Doctor was scared, it meant she should be absolutely shitting herself right now. She tried to move and realised she was strapped down to something – on opening her eyes she realised she was also blindfolded.

Ok, she was _definitely_ shitting herself right now.

"Amy?" She heard Amanda call out from near her. "Amy? Are you there? _Amy?_"

"I'm here!" She called back.

"Answer me the first time, why don'tcha! Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I guess – apart from the fact I'm tied to a board and blindfolded." A chilling thought occurred to her. "Oh my God...they're going to kill us!"

"No shit Sherlock! Why d'you think they've tied us up for?"

At that moment there was a hiss and the blindfold was ripped from Amy's face. Blinking tears from her eyes – the blindfold had been tied so tight her eyeballs felt permanently squashed – she squinted through the darkness –

And suddenly realised the darkness was _moving_. She gagged as she realised it was made out of hundreds – thousands, maybe – of Nightmare Children, forming a sort of bubble around herself and Amanda.

Looking at Amanda, she realised that she was thinking the same thing as her: _What happened when the 'bubble' collapsed?_

xXx

"So what do we do now?" Hoffman stared at the Doctor's back. "Doctor?"

"I don't know," The Doctor sighed, turning to look at Hoffman. "It's hopeless, we don't know where they are, what's happening to them, even what the Nightmare Children want with them."

"So, what, we just leave them?"

The Doctor smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand. "No, no I don't want to do that. But...there doesn't seem to be any other option. For now, at least."

Hoffman glared at him. "So you're giving up."

"No, I – "

"Doctor, you and I both know that it's not an option to not _have_ an option. You say that we don't have any options – even at least _trying_ to find them – you're telling me that you're giving up."

"I'm not 'giving up'," The Doctor returned tiredly, and it suddenly seemed to Hoffman that he looked a lot older than before. "It's just I don't see how we can keep going. Before I've known what to expect from these kind of things and known at least a little bit about how to stop them, but these things – " He shrugged helplessly. "As far as I can see it, we can't proceed without knowledge."

Hoffman sighed and walked over to him. "Yeah, I kinda guessed you'd come out with something like that. Doesn't mean we can't do a goddamn thing though, does it?"

"Yeah." The Doctor looked at Hoffman. "You've got brain cells, right?"

"Hopefully. There isn't going to be thinking involved, is there?" The two men grinned.

"Oh, let me guess, Amy's been taken by some big bad nightmare child right?" Rory asked sarcastically as they both walked back into the main room of the warehouse. "No, wait; don't give me an answer..."

"Shut up Rory, we need a plan." The Doctor said briskly, starting to pace. "Right, first big question: where would a load of emotional parasites be most likely to hang around in?"

"Here?" Jill looked up from Amanda's abandoned trap design.

"Yes, that's pretty likely, close to the source they need..."

"Excuse me," John and Lawrence were helping out with the trap. "The 'source' has a name."

"Yes, I know that, but somehow my theory doesn't seem correct anymore...there's something bigger going on here..." The Doctor suddenly stopped short. "Oh, YES! Lawrence, give me that metal pole!" He did and the Doctor then whacked himself round the head with it. "Stupid, STUPID Doctor..."

"You said we needed brain cells." Hoffman reminded him dryly.

"Yes, clearly I need MORE of them!" The Doctor was getting excited. "Ok, the void can only be opened by a particularly strong blast of energy of some kind, but this can't be external energy but internal energy!"

"Wha – "

"Jenny, what do the Nightmare Children feed on?"

"Emotions, but – " Jenny's eyes widened. "Oh my God...but that's not possible, right?"

"Theoretically speaking, no it isn't. But these are the Nightmare Children, they've had millennia of experience: if they can manipulate the negative energy they feed off to a high enough degree and focus it on one point of the void, then..." He made a ripping gesture with his hands with the appropriate sound effects.

"So that's what they're using Amy and Amanda for," Lawrence realised. "They've been testing – putting some of them in traps to give them some trauma to play with – people for ages, but none of them have been strong enough to live through the effects. So to cover it up they put them in or back in traps and try to replicate the injuries to cover up their tracks."

"So what are we waiting for?" Hoffman snatched up his coat. "Let's go!"

"Wait, Hoffman," The Doctor looked sad. "It's not that simple."

"Oh great, what now?"

"It's not them they want...it's us."

Hoffman looked confused. "Ok, what?"

"Hoffman, you've lost everything."

"...So what?"

"So have I." The Doctor took a deep breath before continuing. "I've had to watch friends, family and even my own race die, be lost, burn. You've been manipulated and seen your only family be destroyed too."

Hoffman's face was blank. "And your point is?"

"Mark, we're absolutely perfect for them. The reason why they didn't take us straight away was because they wanted a little bit more playtime before they got down to business. So, they took Amy and Amanda knowing that we'd care too much about them to let them get hurt and come after them."

"Ah well," Jill shrugged. "Looks like we can't do anything."

"We are not," Hoffman rounded on her. "Giving up!"

"I agree with Hoffman," The Doctor looked round the room. "These odds haven't stopped me before, and they aren't going to stop me now."

"What's your plan?" John asked him.

"Go and rescue them, making up clever solutions to various problems on the way, and somehow put a stop to their plan as well."

"So you have no definite plan."

"Basically. But all the best plans are made along the way...look at Jack Sparrow!" The Doctor looked round the room. "Who's with me?"

"You even need to ask? Hell yeah, they've got my wife!" Rory walked over to him. "'Sides, if she gets killed, her mum will KILL me..."

"Same answer as Rory, different reasons." Hoffman pulled on his coat and stood next to the Doctor.

The Doctor lowered his voice. "Amanda...?"

"Always." He nodded.

"Might as well," Lawrence shrugged. "I need a change of scene."

"That's the spirit!" The Doctor looked at John and Jill. "You two interested?"

"Oh, fine..." John sighed.

"Jill?"

Jill looked sulky. "Why should I? That bitch is none of my business, she can go to hell for all I – " She noticed everyone – especially Hoffman – was giving her filthy looks. "Ok, ok, FINE, whatever..."

"Excellent..." The Doctor grinned suddenly. "ALONS-Y!"

**Ok, so that's the 10****th**** Doctor's word, but who cares?**

**For a special friend of mine – and I mean special as in 'special child' (you know who you are...KATHERINE oops...) – Rory will be singing Plan B in next chapter...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Ok, my turn: I spy with my little eye, something beginning with..." Amy looked around. "N and C."

"Nightmare Children?" Amanda glared at her.

"Ooo, you're good at this game!" Amy said cheerfully, keeping a wary eye on the circling darkness above them. "Your turn!"

"Amy, there's nothing to see apart from the floor and the Nightmare Children. You've used all of them about twenty times each!"

"Now, now, Amanda," Amy chided. "I'm only trying to keep our spirits up till the Doctor comes to rescue us."

Amanda looked at her hard. "Are you sure he's going to come for us?"

"Of course! The Doctor never gives up on anyone; he'll come for us, just you wait. Now then, your turn."

Amanda rolled her eyes – then stopped mid-roll and gulped. "Ok then...I spy with my little eye something beginning with N, C and D."

Amy frowned. "What?"

"Nightmare Child descending."

They both looked up and watched a piece of the darkness break away from the whole and drift eerily towards them.

Amy swallowed. "I hope they're going to explain why we're here now."

xXx

"_Lift going down."_ Lawrence mimicked. _"Doors closing."_

"Oh, shh." Jill turned to the Doctor. "How high are the chances of us dying in this ridiculous rescue plan?"

"Oh, not high at all," The Doctor said airily as the lift clanked downwards, deeper into the bowels of the warehouse. "Well, maybe one...two is quite likely...over three has a fifty fifty chance...now, the probability of us _surviving_..."

Jill looked at her ex-husband. "Let me out of here."

"You volunteered to come along," John reminded her sternly. "So you're staying."

"John – "

"That's final."

As Jill pouted, the Doctor got out his sonic screwdriver and gave it a quick buzz. Instantly the lift picked up speed and raced downwards.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She shrieked. "Are you trying to kill us now to save us the trouble?"

"Calm down dear," The lift was slowing already. "I was simply speeding us up a little – the Nightmare Children have been doing some tunnelling." True enough, they could now see that the walls on either side of the lift were now made of roughly hewn earth and rock.

"_Doors opening."_ Lawrence remarked as they reached the bottom. The Doctor was first out, jumping impatiently on the balls of his feet as all the others clambered out after him.

"Come on, we don't have all day!" He called as he pulled a wind-up torch from his pocket and clicked it on. "We have a double A to collect!"

"Uh, Doctor," Rory said slowly. "I'm not in much of a hurry right now."

"Why not, are you chicken? Bwak buk buk bu – " The Doctor turned back round. "Oh. Actually, neither am I."

The caves in front of them were rough and twisting, as though a giant worm had gorged its way through the soil. However, the beauty of it was spoiled by three Nightmare Children blocking the way, their shadows pooling around them.

"Time to get back in the lift, I think." Jenny commented as they started to slowly advance, but whirling round they were just in time to see the lift disappear from view.

They were trapped.

xXx

"Hello," Amy forced a smile as the Nightmare Child hovered in front of her. "What's your name?"

"We HaVe No TiTlEs." Amy saw Amanda flinch in surprise: the voice was eerily like John's. "We ArE oNe. We ArE tHe NiGhTmArE ChIlDrEn."

"Alright then," Amy tried to sound more confident than she felt. "Since you can talk, you mind telling us why we're here? Because for all I know we're on a holiday in Scotland."

"YoU'rE lYiNg."

"True, but it was a good try."

The Nightmare Child paused. "YoU aRe NoT a ThReAt, AnD cAn Be EaSiLy DiSpOsEd Of."

"Then you might as well tell us what the hell you're planning!" Amanda called from the other side of the room. The Nightmare Child turned and studied her with eyes the crimson of Billy the Puppet's.

"YoU aRe AfRaId." It observed. Amanda said nothing. "It TaStEs...ExCeLlEnT."

"Chicken or beef?" Amy enquired calmly. It turned back to her. "So come on then, what's our purpose? Don't tell me," She suddenly understood. "The Doctor has lost a lot, and so has Hoffman. We're bait." She met its gaze. "But for what?"

"To OpEn ThE rIfT aNd FeAsT oNcE aGaIn."

"And how do you plan to do that?"

The Nightmare Child smiled, showing a mouthful of razors. "MeMoRy LaNe."

xXx

"What do we do?" Hoffman asked, not looking away from the advancing Nightmare Children.

"I don't know, any bright ideas?" The Doctor asked. "Anyone? No-one? C'mon people, we're about to die, anything might work!" Rory stretched. "Ah. Not the person I would've asked for, but desperate times etc."

"What? No, I was – "

"Good luck Rory." He was shoved in the back by someone – probably Jill – and he found himself in the no-man's land between them and..._them_. They'd stopped and were staring at him quizzically through their big red eyes.

"_Rory, I don't want to hurry you, but doing something NOW would make a big difference to our chance of surviving."_ The Doctor hissed from behind him. Rory gulped and did the first thing that came into his mind.

"She said I love you boy I love you so," He started, his voice wavering. "She said I love you baby oh, oh oh, ohh."

"Oh, Jesus." Hoffman muttered, but he was shushed.

"She said I love you more than I could say, she said I love you ba-a-aby." The Nightmare Children grinned simultaneously, and started forward. "So I said," Rory continued quickly. "What you say girl can't be right: you can't be in love with me, we only just met tonight. So she said, boy I loved you from the start: when I first heard love goes down something started burning in my heart." And then he stumbled on a stone and lurched into the Doctor. The Nightmare Children saw they're chance and moved faster. "I said STOP!" Rory roared the last word and grabbed the UV light from the Doctor's pocket and thrust it in their faces. The Nightmare Children screamed as they're eyes were burnt by the sudden bright light and they gathered up in balls of shadow and flew back the other way. Rory stood there panting, holding the light aloft. Then –

"Nice," Hoffman commented. "No offence though, but I prefer Eminem."

The tense atmosphere disintegrated. "Nice one, Rory Pond." John smiled approvingly.

"He's smiling," Lawrence said. "That alone should scare you." John scowled at him.

"Ok," The Doctor started forward. "Let's go, shall we? And on the way, I'll explain what I think they're planning."

"When he says he 'thinks'," Jenny rolled her eyes. "He means what he's recently figured out."

"Precisely," The Doctor beamed. "It's a long story, so shall we get going? I'll explain on the way."

xXx

"Memory lane?" Amanda snorted. "What the hell?"

"YoUr ImPuDeNcE wIlL bE OvErLoOkEd." The Nightmare Child continued. "MeMoRy LaNe Is A cHaRgE oF HaZmA pArTiClEs CoMbInEd WiTh A sMaLl ChArGe Of ElEcTrIcItY. ThEsE cOmBiNeD pRoDuCe ThE aBiLiTy To DrAw OuT mEmOrYs AnD aMpLiFy ThE eMoTiOnS iN tHeM tO uNlImItEd HeIgHtS. ThE rEsUlTaNt EnErGy – If CoRrEcTlY aPpLiEd – WiLl RiP tHe WaLlS oF tHe VoId ApArT."

"That's well and good...well, not really," Amy nodded. "But...what happens to the Doctor and Hoffman after that?"

"ThEy WiLl Be NeCeSsArY tO kEeP tHe VoId OpEn."

"What does that mean?" Amanda asked.

"I know," Amy said coldly, bile rising in her throat. "It means that they're going to be kept as a back-up supply...they're going to be tormented for infinity whilst everything burns."

"YoU aRe PaRtIaLlY cOrReCt. ThE vOiD wIlL bE uSeD aS wHaT yOu HuMaNs WoUlD cAlL a StOrErOoM – eXcEsS eNeRgY wIlL bE sToReD tHeRe."

"And it'll be channelled through them." Amy fought down the rising panic. "And they're coming down here now."

Another Nightmare Child swooped down and spoke to the first with almost exactly the same voice. "ThEy ArE oN tHeIr WaY – sEaRcH pArTy SuGgEsTs ThEy HaVe NoT cOmE aLoNe."

The first nodded. "ExCeLlEnT...mOrE tO fEaSt On."

"You can't do this." The two turned to look at Amanda, who looked terrified.

"We CaN," One said. "AnD oNcE tHeY aRe HeRe We WiLl LeT tHeM hAvE tHe PrIvIlAgE oF wAtChInG yOu DiE."

xXx

"Seriously, next time to Eminem." Hoffman moved up beside Rory as they walked, the Doctor's torch the brightest thing in the atmosphere.

"How was I meant to choose what to sing?" Rory snapped. "Besides, didn't you hear what the Doctor just said? About how you and him are going to be used."

Hoffman winced. "Ah. Yeah. But, to be honest, you wouldn't mind that would you?"

"What?"

"Why don't you like me?"

Rory laughed sarcastically. "Oh, let's see: you flirt with Amy, you try to kill Amy – "

"You see me as a threat." It was Hoffman's turn to laugh as Rory's mouth dropped open. "Close your mouth kid, you'll swallow a fly." He frowned. "Actually, there are no flies down here, so relax: take your time in closing. Anyway, I'm just interested."

Rory closed his mouth. "Well, mainly 'cos – " He looked Hoffman up and down pointedly.

"I didn't know you rolled that way, Rory."

"No! It's just – you – "

"Seriously, you think Amy thinks I'm better than you?" Hoffman chuckled. "Rory, you need more self-esteem."

"Why?"

"Trust me; she's mad about _you_, no-one else. The fact she wants to marry you should say enough, but you're just badly intimidated by everyone else. You'll just have to inflate your ego a bit more...five minutes ago should've helped."

"Why?"

"Jesus Rory, you fought off Nightmare Children simply by _singing_: that's got to be good."

"Or it simply means I'm bad at singing." Rory smirked.

"You should hear me try to rap!"

"Alright – "

And then there was no more time to say anything as a ball of darkness descended on their heads and swallowed them whole.

xXx

"We're screwed." Amanda finally voiced what the two of them had been thinking.

Amy shook her head. "No we're not – the Doctor will think of something."

Amanda snorted. "Him? Please, they're just as screwed as we are. I highly doubt any of us are going to get out of here alive."

"Well in that case, are you going to answer my question?"

"Which one?"

"Mark Hoffman. Do you like him or not?"

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Fine, yes, but I don't see – "

"Knew it!" Amy grinned. "This is great, when he finds out – "

"No." Amanda glared at her. "No way in hell."

Amy stopped grinning. "Why not?" Silence. "Amanda?"

"It wouldn't work."

"But he – "

"Yes, maybe he likes me too, but I can't risk it." Amanda smirked at Amy's face. "How stupid do you think I am? You don't ask someone you just met questions like that unless you have an ulterior motive."

Amy winced. "Yeah, I forgot that bit. But if you know..."

Amanda sighed. "John wouldn't approve."

"Oh come on, coming from someone who's been divorced I don't think you should take his love life tips seriously."

"Emotionally there can be nothing there."

"But there's _already_ something there, you can't just avoid it!"

Amanda didn't meet her eyes. "Just don't tell him, ok?" Amy squirmed. "OK?"

"Alright, I won't." Amy finally agreed, making it clear she didn't like it. "But I still think – " She jumped as a Nightmare Child appeared right in front of her.

"YoUr WaIt Is NeArLy OvEr."

"What does that mean?"

"YoUr FrIeNdS aRe AlMoSt HeRe."

**Wanted to post up Halloween edition of ABC, but I haven't worked on this for ages so I thought I'd update this first. Happy Halloween if ABC isn't done in time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Ok, I think I preferred the lift." Jill gasped. The group had just been deposited none too gently in the bubble of Nightmare Children.

"Or the tube," Rory muttered, dusting himself off as they staggered to their feet. "Even a crowded train underground could NOT be as claustrophobic as that!"

"I've had worse," The Doctor said cheerfully, the only one of them who had landed on his feet with not a hair – or bow tie – out of place. "I've been stuck down a mine in Chile – nice blokes actually; I went jogging with one of them."

"DOCTOR!" Amy called from the centre of the bubble. "OVER HERE

"Oh, call for him then!" Rory grumbled as the Doctor ran over, sonic screwdriver at the ready. "Don't call for me!"

"To be fair, he does have that thing." Hoffman pointed out as the Doctor freed Amy and then started on Amanda.

"Fair enough," Rory admitted. "But I'm the one she's getting married to, not him!"

Hoffman gave him a hard look. "What did I say about low self-esteem?"

"Oh yeah, right."

A Nightmare Child drifted slowly down in front of the Doctor. "DoCtOr. We MeEt AgAiN."

"Hello," The Doctor looked directly into its blood red eyes, keeping his tone deliberately light. "Nice to see you again, although of course I was quite surprised to find out you were still alive."

"We DeVeLoPeD DoCtOr – SoMeThInG tHaT yOuR rAcE cOuLd NeVeR dO."

The Doctor's eyes flashed. "Let's not go there. So, why the ambush? I know you want us for something, but you could've just asked!"

"They want you for memory lane!" Amy blurted out.

The Doctor facepalmed. "Ohhh, I should've seen this coming..."

"Doctor, what is memory lane?" Jenny asked.

"It's controlled by Hazma particles and – " He looked at the nonplussed faces. "Point being, it causes a lot of pain and me and Hoffman would be stuck in our worst memories for the rest of time."

"What fun." Hoffman commented dryly. He looked round as Amanda appeared behind him. "You ok?"

"I'm fine," She said, not meeting his eyes. "But I think you should be concentrating more on this situation right now." Hoffman raised his eyebrows, but before he could pursue the matter the Nightmare Child started talking again.

"YoU aNd ThE cHoSeN hUmAn MaLe WiLl Be TaKeN tO mEmOrY lAnE nOw."

The Doctor shook his head. "And allow your race to leech on other people's despair and send the whole universe into basic depression so you can live? I don't think so. But I can help you."

"HoW?"

"There must be another way for you to survive – positive emotions, have you tried living off that?"

"ThAt Is NoT aN oPtIoN."

"Oh, and why not?"

"It DoEsN't TaStE aS gOoD."

The Doctor became eerily calm, and even Amy couldn't look him in the eyes. "So, you're rejecting my offer because it's not gourmet enough for you? Well, I'm glad that's settled, because the only way I'm letting this happen is OVER MY DEAD BODY." The group flinched as the Doctor bellowed the last four words at the Nightmare Child. It regarded him quietly.

"YoU hAvE nO cHoIcE iN tHiS mAtTer." It said coldly.

"Oh yeah? And what makes you think that?"

"BeCaUsE iF yOu DoN't, We WiLl KiLl YoUr FrIeNdS."

"You'll kill them anyway."

"NeVeRtHeLeSs, YoU wIlL dO wHaT wE sAy."

The Doctor chewed the inside of his cheek. "Fine. But I want your word that you'll let them go."

"YoU jUsT mAdE iT cLeAr ThAt YoU dOn'T tRuSt Us."

"Nevertheless, _you_ will do what _I_ say."

The Nightmare Child considered, its head tilted almost childishly to the side. "VeRy WelL. YoU wIlL cOmE wItH uS nOw."

"Ok then," The Doctor said grudgingly, then turned sadly to the group. "Sorry, I think we can say this rescue mission is rather badly in tatters right now."

xXx

Amy dropped to the back of the group to walk next to Hoffman. They were being frogmarched – or was it frogfloated – down through the twisting tunnels by Nightmare Children. It was difficult to say how many of them there were because they and the shadows merged into one, so it was impossible to tell which was which. She shuddered at the very thought of this 'memory lane'; if what the Doctor said was true, then they were all in very deep trouble, universe included.

"What did she say?" Hoffman broke her out of her reverie and for a moment she just stared at him blankly. "You know, Amanda. What did she say?"

Amy caught on. "Oh, she said she – " And then she remembered her promise and her heart sank like a stone right into her stomach.

Hoffman looked at her expectantly. "Come on then, what did she say?"

Amy faced forward so that she couldn't see his face. "She doesn't like you like that."

"Ah." The single sound made her cringe.

"I mean," She hurried on, trying to lessen the blow. "She does like you, as a friend I mean, just not...that."

"Yeah, ok. That's fine." Amy had a bad feeling she'd made things worse.

"Are you ok with this?"

"'Course, why wouldn't I be?"

Amy bit her lip but said nothing. They went the rest of the way in silence.

xXx

"Well, memory lane isn't really the tourist destination you hyped it up to be is it?" The Doctor remarked as they made their way into a small space practically clawed from the rock. "Just two chairs with hyperfibre restraints and a pretty massive Hazma energy converter...well, maybe it is just slightly pretty impressive..."

"YoU wIlL sIt." The Nightmare Child said.

"God, I can't tell whether this is the same one we were talking to before or if it's a totally different one." Lawrence remarked to John.

John nodded. "I find it disconcerting that they're using my voice...but you know, imitation _is_ the lowest form of flattery."

"Shut up." Muttered Hoffman.

"I wasn't talking to or about you, I was merely saying – "

"YoU wIlL bE sIlEnT nOw." The Nightmare Child turned to the Doctor and Hoffman. "YoU wIlL sIt."

"Yeah, alright," The Doctor made as if to sit, but then stopped. "But there's one slight problem with that."

"AnD tHaT iS?"

"Well, you know I said the rescue mission was in tatters right then?"

"YeS, aNd ThE rElEvAnCe Is?"

"Well, it isn't now."

"WhY dO yOu AsSuMe ThAt?"

The Doctor smiled brightly. "Because Mr Nightmare Child Man...Thing...whatever...while you've been focussing on me you haven't been noticing what my darling daughter's been up to."

"All done Dad!" Jenny said cheerfully, snapping a panel shut on the Hazma energy converter and putting away what appeared to be a very small spanner. She pushed a button and immediately it began to hum. Sparks of electricity crackled through the air, setting everyone's teeth on edge. The device began to hum and a woman's voice started speaking in precise, clipped tones.

"Hazma energy converter will detonate in approximately five minutes."

The Nightmare Child rounded on the Doctor. "WhAt DiD yOu Do?"

"Weeell..." The Doctor said slowly. "By tinkering with a couple of important components – and implacing your species' genetic code from her brilliant researching of your race – the Hazma energy converter will now, instead of opening the void, tear you apart." The Doctor smiled grimly. "A change from gourmet doesn't sound so bad now, does it?"

"ChAnGe It bAcK – wE wIlL bE pRePaReD tO rEcOnSiDeR yOuR oFfEr."

"No way – you've made your choice, now deal with it. Sorry, but...game over."

The Nightmare Child screamed with rage. "YoU wIlL pAy FoR tHiS!"

"Doctor!" Jenny called a warning as the remaining Nightmare Children stopped circling and hurled themselves at the Doctor, but suddenly a burst of Hazma energy crackled in their path. Instantly they disintegrated, their anguished howls ringing through the air long after they had gone.

"Hazma energy converter will detonate in approximately four minutes."

"Run!" The Doctor threw his sonic screwdriver to Jenny, who deftly caught it. "The detonation probably won't cause cave-ins, but those Nightmare Children aren't exactly going to be happy at their imminent destruction!" Almost to prove his point there was a wail – or rather wails – of rage in the distance. "Use setting 536: it's like a sat nav for giant open spaces; it'll get you to the lift and out of here in no time!"

"But what about you?" Lawrence frowned.

The Doctor paused. "You still need the negative emotions to truly get it working. You're all human so you wouldn't stand a chance; however I'm a Time Lord. I can regenerate so I have a good chance of surviving this."

Rory gave him a look. "That's a lie, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, I don't actually have a clue...the odds aren't really in my favour...but hey, you know me." The Doctor winked. "Always look on the bright side of life, do do, do do do do do do..."

"Doctor, you can't do this!" Amy cried suddenly.

"Oh yes he can," Jenny said grimly. "He's the Doctor; it's what he does.

Amy felt like she might start crying. "I know damn well what he does! Doctor, please..."

The Doctor gave her a small hug. "Run along Amy Pond, I've got some work to do." Amy nodded and stepped away.

"Hazma energy converter will detonate in approximately three minutes."

"Now RUN!" The Doctor roared, and they ran. Smiling sadly to himself he turned back to the chairs...and then turned slowly back round again as he realised that not everyone had left."

"Hoffman, I said leave. NOW."

Hoffman strolled over, his hands in his pockets. "So you only need one person for this, right?" His voice was calm. The Doctor understood what he was thinking.

"No, Hoffman; _I_ need to do this."

"Whoever said _you_ had to do this?"

"I have nothing left to live for!"

"Well neither do I! 'Sides, you appear to have a daughter and Ponds plural to look after."

"Well I..." The Doctor floundered. "I have more of a chance at surviving than you, I'm – "

"A Time Lord, I know. But you and I both know there's practically the same chance of you getting out of this alive as I would."

The two men regarded each other in silence.

"What about Amanda?" The Doctor asked quietly.

"She sees me as a friend, that's it." Hoffman nodded to the chairs. "Now do I just sit in these or what?"

The Doctor paused, then nodded. "Take a chair, any chair."

"God, you sound like you're about to do some twisted magic trick or something." Hoffman joked, sitting.

"Yeah, that's right!" The Doctor let out a bark of false laughter as he helped restrain him. "Ha! I will now wipe out a whole species with nothing but a ray gun and what looks like a rollercoaster seat!" He stepped back and nodded. "It's a good thing that you're doing, you know."

Hoffman's mouth twitched. "Guess I'm making up for some stuff. Now, run!"

"Hazma energy converter will detonate in approximately two minutes."

And the Doctor ran.

xXx

"Nearly there!" Called Jenny as they raced down the twisted tunnels.

"Just keep moving!" The Doctor yelled as he materialised behind them. They screeched to a halt.

"Where's Hoffman?" Amanda asked urgently.

The Doctor met her gaze. "He stayed behind."

"Oh my God..." Amy whispered.

"Come on, we've got to keep going!" Jenny called, and reluctantly they kept going round the corner and eventually came to the lift shaft.

"I do feel like I misjudged Mark," Commented John. "Maybe I judged him too soon..."

"You've judged nearly everyone damn too soon." Snorted Lawrence.

"Not everyone!"

"Oh come ON! Amanda, back me up here..." Lawrence looked round as the lift came into view. "Where's Amanda."

Through the darkness, they couldn't see the Doctor and Amy smiling.

xXx

"Hazma energy converter will detonate in approximately one minute."

Hoffman hissed as a burst of Hazma energy grazed his fingertips. For a few seconds it felt like he was drowning as it unlocked some of his most painful memories, but then everything was normal again. He winced as the same thing happened again, unable to choke back a sob as Angelina's face floated before him. Distinctly he felt something heavy curl up in his lap, and when he looked again Amanda was there.

"Amanda, get out of here!"

Amanda smiled. "A bit late for that – they've already gone up."

"Hazma energy converter will detonate in approximately thirty seconds."

He swore. "You idiot!" The Hazma energy struck again and he moaned. He felt her hands on either side of his face and with effort opened his eyes. "Amanda..."

Amanda shook her head. "I think you'll find you're the idiot, actually – you're the one who was holding my plans upside down!"

Hoffman smirked. "It still wasn't decipherable, and besides you – "

"Oh, shut up." He never got to finish because at that moment she kissed him and it was a bit difficult to talk after that.

And also at that same moment, the Hazma energy converter detonated.

xXx

The vibrations from the detonation shook the concrete floor of the warehouse before subsiding. There was an awkward silence as no-one knew what to say next.

Rory cleared his throat. "Well...looks like we saved the world. Again."

"Hell yeah we did!" Lawrence whooped, then frowned. "Hang on...did you just say 'again'?"

"Yup."

"_Awesome_!" Lawrence high fived him.

"Thank God that's over." Jill sighed. "I was starting to think that I'd never get back to normality again...well, as normal as you can get with _him_ around!"

"Thanks," John said darkly. "Thanks very much. Doctor, would my – "

"Your cancer shouldn't be coming back any time soon," The Doctor answered him unfinished question. "But normality won't be returning any time soon I'm afraid, as I'll explain when I get back upstairs again."

"Back upstairs...what are you going back for?" Amy frowned as the Doctor moved in the direction of the lift.

"Weeell...if a positive emotion paradoxes the negative emotion, then each cancels each other's effects out whilst still producing enough power to destroy the Nightmare Children."

A smile spread slowly over Amy's face. "So you mean...?"

"Exactly." The Doctor grinned.

xXx

Amanda coughed violently and sat up, rubbing her head. Dust swirled from the ceiling and there was an alarmingly big crack in the wall. The Hazma energy converter had died and it was darker than before, so when she touched something soft and fleshy she nearly jumped a mile before realising it was Hoffman's hand. Reaching over she managed to locate his neck, fearing the worst; but before she could locate a pulse he coughed violently and his eyes snapped open. He smirked and she scrambled backwards so that she wasn't leaning over him anymore. "Just 'cos you're alive doesn't mean you can stare at my tits all you want, pervert!"

Hoffman laughed. "No I wasn't – it's not my fault you left them on display!" He sat up and groaned, massaging his head. "Ok, that. Hurt."

"Good." Amanda muttered, then relented and hugged him. "Good to know you're still here though, despite said pervertism."

"Same to you too," He kissed her on the cheek. "Especially now."

Amanda pulled back. "So you're saying that if I hadn't just kissed you you wouldn't have cared if I was dead?" She hit him. "Jerk!"

"That's not what I meant; you're deliberately misinterpreting what I was saying!"

"Well that's not what I heard!"

"Oh my God..."

The Doctor chuckled to himself in the shadows as they continued bickering. "Ahh, don't you love relationships?"

**I'm privately thanking God that those Nightmare Children are dead now...do you know how tiring it is to have to go *caps on, type letter, caps off, type letter* EVERY SINGLE TIME? *ahem* So anyway, I'm glad I don't have to do **_**that**_** anymore...**

**We're nearly at the end now; just one more thing to sort out – why won't normality be returning any time soon...?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Hoffman gaped, mouth opened almost comically wide. "The inside...it's bigger than the outside." He glared at the Doctor who had been mouthing the words with him. "Yes, you've probably heard it before, but there's no need to make fun of me – I've got a massive headache."

The Doctor shrugged. "Yeah well, you did volunteer. And ta-da!" He did some jazz hands over the console. "My twisted magic trick paid off: everyone's alive, the right people are with the right people, the world is saved AGAIN...and no John, you cannot take samples of my TARDIS technology."

John looked disappointed. "But – "

"Uh-uh. No way. If you use it to make any more weird traps then I'd be forced to take you down like a boss."

"'Like a boss'," Rory smirked. "Doctor, you badman."

"Brap." Amy added.

The Doctor looked indignant. "I am not a 'bad man', I generally try to see myself as a rather good, if slightly flawed, one."

"Fine then, you're a legend."

"Now THAT I can agree with."

Jill's disembodied voice came floating out of the bowels of the TARDIS. "You have a _swimming pool?_ In a _library?_"

"You listen to _Coldplay?_"

The Doctor turned the hot and cold taps on the console, hit it merrily with a hammer he'd kept from his past incarnation and rounded on Lawrence. "Surprise at finding a swimming pool in a library, I can understand. But at the fact I listen to Coldplay?"

"Well it's not something you'd expect an alien to listen to is it?"

"Enlighten me, what DO aliens listen to then?"

"Err...Ziggy Stardust? David Bowie?"

"Starman. Life On Mars. Oh thanks, thanks a bunch. I _do_ like those songs, but that's beside the point." The abnormal grating sound of the TARDIS in flight stopped abruptly and the Doctor beamed. "Right, out we get. Jill," He called as he led the way out the door. "Unless you're lost, you'd better come out now."

The place where they'd landed was no more than a field, with a few cows that chewed thoughtfully as they checked out the newcomers. To any observers – and there were none – it would've been obvious that the newcomers were just as confused as the cows.

"Doctor," John said slowly. "Why are we here?"

The Doctor jumped up and down on the muddy grass. "Well, I'd say we're somewhere in the country...but that wasn't your question. You are all here for your second chance. Basically, you're getting the opportunity to live again."

"Yes, but...isn't that counted as normal?"

The Doctor blinked. "Yes. And?"

"John has a point," Amanda said as Jill left the TARDIS and stepped right into a cowpat. "Amy tells me that you said something about nothing returning to normal for awhile, so there must be something else."

He looked blank for a second, and then he gave an 'oh' of realisation before slapping himself round the face. "Silly Doctor...well, when the hazma energy converter went off I'm pretty certain that the Nightmare Children took DNA from you guys and made basic clones of the four people already seen as threats to known civilisation."

It only took a moment for John, Jill, Amanda and Hoffman to understand the implications of this. "Oh hell."

"Hang on a sec," Lawrence was confused. "Why didn't they make a clone of me?"

"Apparently they don't think you're evil enough."

"Woo-hoo!" He caught the dirty look the foursome were giving him and winced. "Uh...I don't think you guys are evil."

"Sure you don't." Jill glared.

"Anyway," The Doctor continued, apparently oblivious to the heated atmosphere. "Those clones will try to kill each other and continue to hurt other people in an effort to resuscitate their dead race, but it will be in vain; they'll keep on trying though, and that's where you guys come in."

Hoffman clicked before everyone else. "You want us to stop them?"

The Doctor smiled. "Well, the best person to stop you _is_ you. I remember this time when a duplicate me was made out of my severed hand..." He noticed the blank looks from his reverie. "But that isn't important. What is very important is that you stop these things without causing too much harm to anyone else."

"And why exactly aren't you doing this?"

"See this as a test: I want you to prove that you're fully changed, and that you're capable of making decisions that DO NOT involve hurting other people. Do you accept this?"

"So let me get this straight: we're doing the work for you while you three go running off doing other things as 'a test'? Isn't that slightly unfair?"

Rory patted him on the back. "Not really mate. You see, we generally spend our time running around doing this stuff _all the time._ You guys get to stop after just one job."

"But you get to travel."

"And we get all the life-threatening danger that comes with it. Not that it isn't fun, but I'd rather not have to do it."

Hoffman thought for a moment, and then turned to Amanda. "You up for it babe?"

"I am NOT your babe," Amanda smirked as she kissed him on the cheek. "But yeah, sure, whatever."

"Then I'm in."

"I suppose that means we're up for this crazy mission too." Jill sighed.

John grinned. "Let the games begin." Amy glared at him. "What?"

"Never," She growled. "EVER say that again."

"Seconded," Rory added. "Or I'll ignore the fact you're an old man and punch you in the face."

John gulped. "Uh, ok." He turned to the Doctor. "I thank you, Doctor. Clearly you're someone who has more of a right to judge people than I do."

The Doctor grimaced. "Well I suppose, but I really try not to. That is, as long as they're not trying to destroy or take over something, or doing anything I don't like. And even then I try to give them a fair chance to turn it around – the main difference between your methods and mine though are HOW we try to turn them around."

The old man nodded, then shook the Doctor's hand. "Farewell Doctor, I hope you have a good life."

"You too, Jiggy me old mucker." He turned to Amanda and Hoffman. "Have fun you two, and don't do anything I wouldn't do...well, hardly anything."

"Goodbye Doctor." Amanda said, and surprised everyone by hugging him round the waist. The Doctor patted her awkwardly, and when she released him she whirled round to meet Hoffman's questioning look. "Oh come on, he deserves a hug once in a while. I don't think he gets much hugs at all if he runs around that much. Do you get many hugs?"

"No, and it's a real shame. Hugs are cool."

"Well, I might as well give you something 'cool' to remember me by." Jill said, wrapping her arms around him for a quick hug. When she stepped back, John was giving her an odd look similar to that given to Amanda by Hoffman. "What are you being so possessive for? We're not even married!"

"I feel so popular and loved." The Doctor said happily, clapping his hands together. "Right Ponds plural, let's be off. The rest of you, the nearest town is only a short walk away; you should be able to get a bus or something from there."

"Bye, guys!" Amy called as she and Rory followed the Doctor back into the TARDIS. "Stay safe!"

"And don't kill anyone!" Rory added as the door slammed shut.

"Yeah, like we'd EVER do that." Lawrence smirked.

The group watched the TARDIS fade with a groan from that particular part of time and space before making their move towards the nearest town, which turned out to be a two-mile walk through the mud that made all of them curse the Doctor's habit of parking in the wrong place and Jill to step in a few more cowpats. But hey, it was all worth it. Because they were about to do what the Doctor did best: an adventure with a lot of running.

**END! So sorry I didn't update sooner, ended up working on loads of stuff at the same time. Hope this was a fitting ending and if not I apologise; I haven't really been putting as much effort into my writing as I used to *denies self muffins as a way of self harm* and have become addicted to energy drinks *wants one right NOOOOWWWWW*. Anyway love all you guys and hope to be putting up more stuff soon!**


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